A Staff Devotional for the 2010 Conference Team

Thursday, March 25, 2010

March 27:Giving Testimony

I have at least two reasons to believe that Job suffered for my benefit:

1. It is recorded. Paul assures us that ‘whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope’ (Rom. 15:4).

2. The comfort Job received was not only for him, but for us as well (2 Cor. 1:3-8).

So, how does this benefit me? It helps me have hope and I am comforted in who I find God to be because of this one man’s suffering. This isn’t it, however; the hope and comfort are more than we initially think. It seems true to the text that the ‘hope’ in Romans 15 has to do with a sort of personal eschatology - that there is some redemptive ending to whatever presently seems disastrous. This is good, but there’s more: that we can learn from the communication of someone else’s past suffering, though, is also hope-giving. It means that God can use our pain and losses for more than just personal sanctification:

Someone else’s future hope may be buried inside my wounds and tears, awaiting the right time when I unearth and unwrap it to pass on.

My college mentor, keying in on this idea, says, “We suffer for someone else” (cf. 2 Cor. 1:3-8). What Paul (and my mentor) hope we see is that sometimes part of the purpose God has us suffer through Good Friday is to tell them about the surpassing joys of Easter Sunday. The hope we find in Job and other trials in the Bible is not only of future relief, but future service. To put it differently: Not only can we hope that present thirst will be satisfied, we’ll have enough left around to give to another parched soul. Now that’s good news.

What is a story from the Bible which encourages you to endure with hope (other that Jesus’)? Go read that this morning.

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